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Don Tallerman, the co-chair of the annual Snowflake Festival, reaches down from an artificial Christmas tree frame to grab a tree "limb" handed up by committee president and KUBA board member Elenie Loizou. The tree will be on dsiplay at the intersection of Wall and North Front streets in Uptown Kingston and will be lit by Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the Snowflake Festival.

Santa, fun, family time at Uptown Kingston's Snowflake Festival on Dec. 7

Don Tallerman, the co-chair of the annual Snowflake Festival, reaches down from an artificial Christmas tree frame to grab a tree "limb" handed up by committee president and KUBA board member Elenie Loizou. The tree will be on dsiplay at the intersection of Wall and North Front streets in Uptown Kingston and will be lit by Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the Snowflake Festival.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Snowflake Festival revelers gather at the intersection of Wall and North Front streets in Kingston, N.Y., during the 2017 event.

KINGSTON, N.Y. — Uptown rings in the holiday season at the Snowflake Festival on the evening of Friday, Dec. 7.

"The holiday season is a hustle-and-bustle, got-to-finish-everything time," said Elenie Loizou, owner of the Dietz Stadium Diner and president of the Kingston Uptown Business Association, which organizes the festival. "Snowflake Festival allows families to stop and spend time during the holidays together."

That's more important than whatever the hottest gifts are this year, she added.

"It's not commercialized. It's family time," Loizou said.

The expanded festival features more carolers and clowns. For the first time, it extends farther down Wall Street to the Citizens Bank branch, which hosts Bee-Bee the Clown as Mrs. Claus telling holiday stories, and the Ulster Savings Bank building across the street, where children can enjoy face painting and balloon magic while listening to members of the Midtown-based theater troupe Coach House Players.

"It grows every year," Loizou said.

The evening opens with Victorian carolers strolling the streets of Uptown from 4 to 6 p.m.

After that, Santa and Mrs. Claus will arrive on an antique fire engine from the Volunteer Fireman's Hall and Museum. The engine will travel from the Kingston Fire Department's Wiltwyck Fire Station on Frog Alley and arrive at the corner of Wall and North Front streets, where a tree lighting will take place.

Each year, thousands of people crowd around Santa as he hops off the truck and lights the tree, according to Loizou.

"We estimated that 5-6,000 kids visited with Santa," said Nan Potter, who owns Potter Realty and co-chairs the festival with Don Tallerman, owner of Dragon 360 at the Senate Garage.

Each year, "The Ice Man" brings his own unique ice sculptures that youngsters can play in adjacent to the tree, Potter said.

"They can put their face in it, or stand next to it and have their picture taken," Potter said.

Or visitors can warm up at a performance by the "Heat Mizer," whose name is a play on the constantly warring brothers Heat Miser and Snow Miser from the 1974 stop-motion animated Christmas special "The Year Without a Santa Claus."

The Ulster County-based performer will juggle fire torches on North Front Street.

This year, KUBA partnered with the Senate House State Historic site, which for years ran its own Festival of Lights event the same night, Potter said.

The Senate House hosts both Santa and a carousel of Lights.

"It's a big carousel constructed of lights," Potter said.

Families can also check out Santa's House, she added. Children can go inside a tent and watch a holiday movie while they await Santa, Potter said.

Revolutionary War reenactors portraying soldiers of the First Ulster Militia will also be on hand. Next door at the Loughran House on Fair Street, visitors can check out trees decorated by local organizations, Potter said.

Another favorite is the horse-drawn carriage rides that run in a loop from the corner of John and Fair streets, down Fair Street, turning on to Main Street and passing the Old Dutch church before hanging a right onto Wall Street and turning back onto John Street.

The carriage can take 30 riders on each ride, Loizou said.

Potter added that the carriage rides harken back to when horses and carriages would've been a common site in the Stockade District from the 1600s until the early 1900s.

Potter and Loizou also recommended a stop at the Volunteer Fireman's Hall and Museum.

"Kids get to go around the antique fire trucks including the one that brings Santa," Loizou said, adding that the museum serves snowflake cookies and hot chocolate.

The Old Dutch Church will also serve holiday cookies and hot chocolate, while the Kingston Candy Bar offers free games, popcorn and jelly beans. The Senate House will have roasted chestnuts.

More and more Uptown stores are staying open, creating a more welcoming environment for festival goers, Potter said.

She added that the festival benefits shops Uptown, not only through the added foot traffic that night, but by raising awareness among visitors who may have not even realized these stores existed if they didn't visit for the festivities.

Loizou said the festival also attracts a number of visitors from the Catskill Mountain Railroad's popular Polar Express train rides that depart from nearby Kingston Plaza.

Potter said they'll hand out festival brochures to passengers riding the Polar Express rides on the days leading up to the festival.

The event originally started as a parade that traveled from Dietz Stadium and then up North Front Street, but that all changed after a driving rainstorm hit on the day of the parade five years ago. Potter watched soaked paradegoers and participants and she knew they needed to make a change.

"We wanted to something where people could move in and out things and keep moving and keep warm," Potter said.

She said a core group of five people spend nearly the entire year planning the festival, but all the hard work pays off in the end when they see smiles on the faces of all the children.

And the night creates lasting memories.

"I've had people come up to me in July and say how great the Snowflake Festival was," Potter said.

Loizou views the festival as a chance for KUBA to give back to the community in the form of a free festival.

While many people bring ideas for activities they'd like to bring to the festival, only family-friendly ones make the cut.

"When we get other ideas we suggest they do something for New Year's Eve," Potter said.